b. 26 April 1798. d. 19 October 1866. Nationality: Scottish. VIAF.
Working-class poet and sketch writer, writing in Scots and English. Born in Montrose,
Angus. Attended Montrose Academy. Apprenticed to a watchmaker in Montrose , then moved
to Edinburgh and worked as a type compositor. Author of *Rambling Rhymes* (1834, 1845)
and *Songs of Labour and Domestic Life* (1860). At the end of his life suffered serious
mental ill health, following reviews of his 1860 volume. Biographical information:
Reilly, *Mid-Victorian Poetry*, p. 423; James Grant Wilson (ed.), *The Poets and Poetry
of Scotland*, vol. 2, Harper & Brothers, 1876, p. 172. (KH, AC)